Really...You Want Me To Teach Saturday School?

Is this the feeling that you get when you are approached and asked to teach SOL Saturday school?
What?  You really want me to teach on Saturday?  Do you really think the kids will want to come, and if they do, will that even work?

The answer is "yes", but it all depends on how it is structured and if it is motivating!

This past Saturday, I taught my first ever session of SOL Saturday school.  While I will admit that this is something that I do not want to do every Saturday, I had a lot FUN!

I structured it as challenges, having four different challenges for students to work at their own pace on.  They were set up like relay races, and they were only working against their self.  I did not want to set it up pitting them against each other, as I did not want that mentality during testing.  I want them to work for their own self and their own grade.  After finishing each challenge, they were able to pick some type of SOL reward for their hard work in completing and passing their challenge.  SOL Rewards included things like the following:  a sucker, word puzzles, books to read, computer games to play, free draw, etc.

Challenges Included:
Buzz To the Top Fiction and Non-Fiction Reading Passages
Word Power Relay Race - Word Analysis Packets
Around the World Skills & Strategies Packet
Reverse Questioning Booklet

I had 8 students and I started 2 on each challenge.  I was situated in the middle of all of the challenges going on and students came to me one-on-one as they completed portions of their packet.  I reviewed them and checked off correct questions, while advising them to go back on incorrect questions.  After trying one more time on the question, I went over the question and had the student tell me how they had gone about answering it and I helped them.

It was very beneficial to have the one-on-one time with them and see how they were thinking through the problems and what I could do to clarify it for them.  I found certain academic vocabulary that was tricking several of them, as well as determining key words in questions.

All in all it was a very beneficial day, and I feel that there will be a student of two that will pass the SOL due to taking that one-on-one time with them, and yes, on a Saturday morning!

It is ALL about Good Teaching!!!!

Right now everyone is in test prep mode!  The buzz in the teacher's lounge, around the cafeteria table, in the hallways and on social media is all about testing, testing, testing.  But wait...don't hit the panic button yet!  If you have had good teaching practices in place all year long, then test prep will be easy.  It will be the time when you watch you students put things into practice that they have learned all year and can apply due to your good teaching.  Of course, we cannot be naive.  There are always those gaps that need to be filled, and those little bumps in the road that need fixed, but overall, test prep should be a time when teachers feel good about what they have accomplished with their students throughout the year, if they have had those good teaching practices in place.

Now might be the time for us as teachers to really take a hard look at how we are teaching and make sure that our teaching practices, that begin on day one, have the final goal in mind.  It all boils down to good teaching!  Stop teaching to the test and just practice good teaching!  Good teaching will give you better results than teaching to the test, or panic driven test prep, and your students will thank you.  Become passionate about your teaching, and let your students catch the passion, and it will be a year to remember as they have fun learning, you have fun teaching, and you are amazed at what they have learned!

Check out all of our FUN test prep resources at our TPT Store - A Love for Reading www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/A-Love-For-Reading

**Make Test Prep FUN!!!!